South East charities face crisis as CAF Bank suspends online services due to suspected cyber fraud

Charities across the South East are worried they will not be able to pay staff and suppliers after being cut off from their online bank accounts. CAF Bank, which is based in West Malling in Kent and serves more than 14,000 non-profit causes UK-wide, said its online services had been suspended since 24 July following reports of suspected cyber fraud. As a result, the ability of some charities to manage essential operations like payroll has been impacted, such as Maidstone-based 21 Together, which helps people with Down's syndrome. Its chief executive Kevan Hodges, who has a 13-strong team of education specialists and part-time staff, described the situation as "appalling". "People are concerned that wages won't get paid because of this, and that's just stressful when they have bills to pay," he said. "My team have wasted days trying to get through to (CAF Bank), but all in vain." He added that when they finally did get hold of someone at the bank, which is owned by the Charities Aid Foundation, they were told to fill out an online form which "would be looked at tomorrow". Others have also voiced their frustrations, such as Bali Rodgers, who is chief executive of Safer Communities Alliance. "It's just not good enough," she said. "Many of the grassroots organisations I represent - churches, YMCAs, vets - have CAF as their bank, but they are slowly losing trust in it." Rodgers added that she had received "no reassurance" about the current situation from the bank, while any information had been "very inconsistent". "It's especially sad that this has happened in the summer when lots of extra projects are up and running," she said. "People are unable to access their own money and have been left feeling powerless - it makes me really angry." In a statement, chief executive Alison Taylor said: "I am very sorry for the disruption this has caused for our customers. "On Monday we informed them that the online banking service will be unavailable until further notice. "We are working with external experts to fix an issue we identified with third-party software related to our online banking portal. Importantly, the core bank is not affected." Taylor added: "We appreciate how difficult this is for our customers and want this to be resolved as quickly as possible, but we cannot restore access until we are assured the issue is safely resolved. "We are still able to support as extra teams are available on the phone, and we are prioritising time-sensitive payments such as payroll."